2captcha

2Captcha

2Captcha is a human-backed CAPTCHA solving service. You send it a captcha challenge (usually just a pageurl + sitekey), it returns a token ~20-40s later, and you inject that token into the target page to bypass the captcha.

Use this skill when:

• Stealth mode + headed Chrome fail against Cloudflare Turnstile
• reCAPTCHA v2 / v3 blocks the flow
• hCaptcha, Geetest, FunCaptcha appear on signup/login pages
• You need image-text OCR fallback

For cheaper pricing (~$0.60/1K vs $1.00/1K) and faster solves, also check capmonster — the APIs are similar enough to swap providers.

Installation

npm install @2captcha/captcha-solver

Setup

import TwoCaptcha from "@2captcha/captcha-solver";

// Default polling interval: 5000ms
const solver = new TwoCaptcha.Solver(process.env.TWOCAPTCHA_API_KEY);

// Or with custom polling (seconds)
const solver = new TwoCaptcha.Solver(process.env.TWOCAPTCHA_API_KEY, 10);

Always read the key from process.env.TWOCAPTCHA_API_KEY — never hardcode it. Torch loads .env from the repo root automatically.

Check balance

Do this first in development to confirm your key works and you have funds:

const balance = await solver.balance();
console.log(`2Captcha balance: $${balance}`);

2Captcha charges only for successful solves, but verify balance before starting large scrapes.

Finding the sitekey

The sitekey is a public identifier the target site passes to the CAPTCHA provider. Find it before calling the solver:

Captcha type	Where the sitekey lives
reCAPTCHA v2	<div class="g-recaptcha" data-sitekey="..."> or iframe[src*="recaptcha"] URL
reCAPTCHA v3	grecaptcha.execute('SITEKEY', ...) in page JS
Turnstile	<div class="cf-turnstile" data-sitekey="0x4AAA..."> or iframe[src*="turnstile"]
hCaptcha	<div class="h-captcha" data-sitekey="...">

Extract it from Puppeteer:

const sitekey = await page.$eval(
  '.g-recaptcha, .cf-turnstile, .h-captcha',
  (el) => el.getAttribute('data-sitekey')
);